We kind of disappeared for a week there, sorry! There were vacations! And back to school panics! And a guest post from Joy covering another preview that I failed to properly queue. Or possibly that the software failed on, given the comment weirdness, but I kind of suspect it was my fault.

And now we’re counting down to the contenda list release date!

I’ll post Joy’s preview coverage and my own coverage of another summer preview this week, and in the meantime, if there is a book you want to put forward as a contenda, stars notwithstanding (we’re still using the 3-star auto-contenda rule, arbitrary as it is, for the sake of convenience), please put the title forward in the comments here, ideally with author and pub date if it isn’t already out.

Well, we all know THE FAULT IN OUR STARS is THE book of the year (so far!). When did we last have a contemporary, realistic fiction title with this much buzz and prepub excitement? It probably goes without saying, but if you are the one person who hasn’t read it yet, be sure to get to it before September. We might just launch with this one, since we know some folks are already spoiling for that fight!

Now, let’s talk about the books that you might not have read yet, but probably ought to if you want to play along. Finally, remember that any books with three or more stars is automatically a contenda, so if you’ve gotten to something we haven’t, do let us know in the comments what deserves to go the distance—or not.